On the 40th anniversary of the murder that shocked Toronto, historians Gilberto Fernandes, Daniel Ross, Tom Hooper (York University), and sex worker/advocate Valerie Scott (Sex Professionals of Canada) will discuss how the death of the young Azorean shoeshine boy Emanuel Jaques impacted the city’s Portuguese, LGBTQ, and sex worker communities, and led to the “revamping” of Yonge Street. This conversation coincides with Ontario’s Portuguese Heritage Month celebrations and Pride Week, beginning on June 23rd.

This Community Conversation is organized by the PCHP with support from York University’s Department of History, Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies, Portuguese and Luso-Brazilian Studies Program; the Gallery of the Portuguese Pioneers; and ActiveHistory.ca

I wonder, as I often have since that murder, why a 12-year-old child was working alone on that notorious strip. In my opinion, it was a completely preventable tragedy. The issue of child labour was not raised in the media at the time, nor has it to my knowledge Been disussed since. The fact that the child was male and that the perpetrators were homosexual skewed all the coverage in that direction and away from the underlying issues of child poverty and parental neglect.

It was a common economic strategy among Portuguese immigrant working families in the 50s-70s to have every able-bodied member of the household (including children) to work for wages in order to support the household’s finances and achieve that much-desired homeownership. Like Emanuel Jaques, there were plenty other Portuguese children working for wages at the time. On the other hand, many Portuguese working parents had multiple jobs and worked long hours, which meant that their children went for long periods without having their parents’ direct supervision, even if their neighbours and extended family kept an eye on them. Many Portuguese immigrant children remember having a great deal of freedom growing up, and having to “raise themselves” – see our interview with Anthony de Sa for his example – until Emanuel’s murder alarmed the parents, who began “locking their doors.”
You are correct that not enough attention is given to the prevalent (and persistent) issue of poverty – for more on this, watch our interview with the Marmelo family and their volunteering work – in the Portuguese-Canadian commemorative narrative, which focuses disproportionally on the “bootstraps” notion of triumph against the odds. Plenty of Portuguese immigrant families did not fare well economically in Canada, including those whose family members lost lives and limbs in working accidents, and those who moved back and rarely get to tell their stories.

Was 22 years old living in Yarmouth NovaScotia and heard the sad new on CBC. this murder bother me just as it did lots of people. now living in Toronto Ontario. on July 29 at 1pm I will t putting a poster on a poll near 245 Yonge st. it is a picture of Emanuel Jaques, 1965-1977 and Gone but not forgotten.